


counting stars

by lady_laverty



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, M/M, pan's in his own body okay, pan's little curse backfires on him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-15
Updated: 2013-12-15
Packaged: 2018-01-04 16:55:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,004
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083419
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lady_laverty/pseuds/lady_laverty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The new Curse was supposed to bring about everything they ever wanted. <br/><i>But it only brought about death and grief.</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	counting stars

**Author's Note:**

> for Brittany who prompted me and created this monster (i hope you’re happy)

The new Curse is not advantageous to Peter and Felix. It backfires spectacularly and it’s amazing that the both of them are still alive at all. Emma’s sure that Rumplestiltskin is cursing his luck right about now and it’s amusing to watch him stalk around in front of the limp bodies of the boys who still hadn’t awoken. She checked their pulse and David tied them up just as a precaution. They look surprisingly young when she looks at them and she can’t help but think that they deserve better than this.

Even the Pan, tortured and twisted by the wild magic of Neverland, deserves better than to be locked up for the rest of his life. The others will disagree but she will be steadfast on this issue. They aren’t locking the boys up if they can’t even remember the reason they were locked up for.

It is cruel.

* * *

 

Peter doesn’t remember much when he wakes up. He’s told that his parents had died in an accident that had taken his memories as well. Nothing is familiar when the Sheriff ( _“Emma,”_ she tells him. _“Call me Emma.”_ ) arrives to tell him how he is being emergency placed with Miss Blanchard until they can find somewhere permanent for him.

He’s told that there was another boy caught in the accident as well, but he’s staying with the Sheriff and his name is Felix. (She doesn’t tell him his last name, and she doesn’t tell him _his_ last name either and maybe they couldn’t find one? He doesn’t know.)

The people of the town don’t look at him nicely (they sneer at him, and herd their children away from him and he doesn’t understand why, _doesn’t remember doing anything to make them feel that way_ ) and he tries to hide more often than not. It takes Miss Blanchard and the Sheriff a long time to find where he hides in the forest, far away from the town, up in trees and under the toll bridge one time. But they always bring him back and he cries and screams at them to let him go, to leave him be, so he could get away from all those accusing stares. Get away from the crime that he hadn’t committed.

So they brought Felix in to be a _companion_ , they said. Felix doesn’t remember anything either and he gets the same looks and they plan. They plan to run away, far, far away from this damned place. They can start anew, with only themselves, and it’s love that he feels for Felix, the tall, gangly blonde that follows him around like his personal shadow. They plan to take the ship that’s docked down at the marina, to slip away in the night and never look back. He hoards cans of food and any little amount of money that Miss Blanchard gives him when they send him off to the school. (He still doesn’t fit in and doesn’t why he can’t keep up with the kids his age, because he would have being doing this before the accident, surely?) Felix does the same and they slip away during the lunch period to plan in the little bit of the forest that is in the school yard.

There’s a girl as well, who stares at them with barely concealed fear and it’s another thing he doesn’t understand. He fidgets and stares at the ground when she is in his class. He doesn’t understand and there’s so much that he can’t explain. He can’t explain why he loves the forest so much and can’t stand being around so many people.

There’s so much that he doesn’t understand and can’t explain but it won’t mean anything when he and Felix are gone.

* * *

 

They catch them.

The man that owns the boat came back too early and found them on his ship and becomes enraged. He sends Felix off so he doesn’t get in trouble and hurt as he takes the beating that the man gives out, there’s something familiar about him but he can’t grab it as it flitters away into the gaping hole that is his memory. He whimpers and sobs, but it seems to enrage the man more.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry—“ He screams and screams but is cut off when a fist hits his mouth and the force behind it sends him flying into the side of the ship. He lays there as he hears the heavy breathing of the man, his attacker, and the footsteps of others racing up the dock. Blood dribbles out of the side of his mouth and he stares up at the stars, bright and free, and he wishes that he was with them.

They are the last thing he sees as his vision goes dark.

* * *

 

They bury him in the forest; a proper funeral for a boy who had become _real_ and respectful. Emma feels an overwhelming amount of guilt when Felix becomes unreachable, runs away regularly and lashes out at her. She finds him at the grave, sometimes, and that’s where he tells her.

“He didn’t know why everyone hated him, you know.” His voice is low and raspy, like he had been crying before she had got there. “Didn’t know why he couldn’t walk down the street without worrying about retribution for something he doesn’t remember ever doing.”

She lets Felix mourn, and mourns as well, for the boy who had so much potential for good when given a chance. She hates Hook, for what she did to him, but he seems to be receiving a rousing applause by the entire town. Mary Margaret visits Peter’s grave often and she wonders if she had come to see Peter as a makeshift child, as much as he fled and planned to run away with Felix.

As life goes on, she stares up at the stars and wonders if he has found some measure of peace now that he was rid of the burden that they had dealt him.


End file.
